Six people including two children tested positive for the influenza A(H1N1) virus Friday, taking the total number of people affected with swine flu in India to 50. At least 16 of them have been discharged from the hospitals on complete recovery.
“Six new cases of swine flu have been reported - three from Delhi, two from Bangalore and one from Mumbai. All of them have been quarantined at identified health facilities and their contacts are being traced,” a health ministry statement said.
“Of the 50 cases, 16 have been discharged. Rest of the patients are all stable and remain admitted to the identified health facilities,” it added. In Delhi, a nine-year-old boy who returned from the US June 11 tested positive. He reported himself to the hospital after he developed swine flu-like symptoms June 17. A 28-year-old man who travelled from Egypt June 13 also tested positive for swine flu. In the third case, a 66-year-old mother contracted swine flu from her son, who had tested positive June 17.
“Delhi has reported three new swine flu cases, including one of human-to-human transfer. We now have 12 swine flu cases in various hospitals in the capital. We are now focusing on containing the secondary infection spreading in the capital,” Delhi Health Secretary J.P. Singh told IANS.
The capital accounts for four of the five human-to-human transfer cases in the country. A two-year-old boy who travelled from the US and reached Bangalore June 14 has tested positive for swine flu. The second case in that city was of a 36-year-old man who travelled from Germany and reached Bangalore June 14. He reported to an identified health facility June 17 and has tested positive.
A 36-year-old male who travelled from New Jersey, US, and reached Mumbai June 15 has also tested positive with swine flu. So far samples of 407 people have been tested, of which 50 have been tested positive. Among these people, 128 were identified through health screening at international airports, 15 through contact tracing and the rest were samples from people who self-reported. Ministry officials said that among the 31 school children in Jalandhar who returned from the US, 14 children continues to be under medication.
Eight of them so far tested positive. They have responded to treatment.
“The remaining children and at least 296 contacts are under chemoprophylaxis. Surveillance in the community for fever cases is on. As of now, no case has been reported among the contacts,” a health ministry official said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are likely to quarantine a family in Chandigarh as one of its members, who recently returned from the US, was suspected to have swine flu.
According to health officials, a 70-year-old woman, who returned from the US June 14 with her two grandchildren, approached the doctors with complaints of sneezing and a sore throat Thursday. Considering her travel history, she was admitted to the government hospital in Sector 32.
The World Health Organisation has reported 44,287 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection from 89 countries as June 17. There have been 180 deaths.